Muslim Families Comprising Pakistani Fathers and Japanese Mothers: Focusing on the Educational Problems of their Children

Abstract

AbstractRecently, the educational problems of children with non-Japanese Muslim fathers and Japanese mothers have come to light in Japan. There has been an increase in the number of transnational families in which the Japanese mother and children have moved to an Islamic country for the Islamic education of the children while the non-Japanese father remains in Japan to work. In this paper, I conduct a case study analysis of families comprising Pakistani husbands and Japanese wives, who selected Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the new place of residence for the wife and children, in view of the difficulties in transmitting Islamic values to the children while living in Japan. In this paper, I focus on the educational problems among Muslim children, and attempt to clarify the types of educational strategy that have been developed using social capital arising from social networks. They have selected an educational strategy with a view toward a transnational social space.